As it was one of their first tis cooperating in such a manner, it took a second for them to achieve a perfect level of fluidity. Then again, saying it took a second wasn’t downplaying it much.
Within a single minute, any awkwardness in their motions was gone. Gio and his party were working as a well-oiled machine.
They were facing a total of eight people, but they didn’t fight eight people at a single ti.
Gio’s first attack cut the eight of them into three groups of three, three, and two. It didn’t an much if his own party didn’t plan to split up, but it prevented them from getting overwheld.
He and Neriah were on the attack. They each took a group of three and took an aggressive approach from the start.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Gio’s digital energy was clear against the background. Massive blazes of virtual flas were joined by outpourings of bullets and other projectiles.
The three people forced into his barrage didn’t have the ti to respond before they were forced to put up barriers.
Voom!
Those barriers were t with golden flas almost instantly. A phoenix flew down from above and waves cascaded from below. The golden energy swallowed four people, including one of the two who were spared from the first strike.
Gio disappeared into the flas as soon as they appeared.
Bang!
At the sa ti, bubbles surrounded Neriah and exploded. Her body was covered in a bright green smoke that healed her injuries and rejuvenated her mind. Those around her were instead exposed to a mixture of poison and hallucinatory substances that invaded through their pores and attacked them from within.
Earth pillars and spikes rose from the ground and cut through the poisonous clouds. Three people were assaulted by forces they couldn’t see and forced back without ever gaining the upper hand.
’This is good.’
The suppression was helping them greatly. They were kings amongst their peers, after all. An ordinary djinn who was suppressed to their level wouldn’t be able to match their skills.
It had to be rembered that djinns were rarely formally trained unless they reached the upper echelons of their chosen groups.
Gio saw how Neriah and Serene moved together. Serene knew Gio didn’t need her help, so she focused her attention on the other side. Once Shiro finished supporting his approach, he also mainly focused on Neriah’s opponents and only supported Gio minimally,
He wondered whether that was a good or bad thing for their strategy as a whole, but he accepted it knowing that they only acted as such because they trusted his abilities.
After only facing off with them for a minute, he could tell that they were enemies he could eliminate without straining himself too hard. His teammates saw it as well.
As he appreciated the machine they were becoming, Gio glanced at the most active combat area only a few ters away.
’Why are they fighting? And...’
He shook his head and decided to ask questions after they escaped.
’If I get the chance, I should...what is that noise?’
Gio’s eyes opened wide.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Only the shockwave reached them. Great gusts of wind slamd against their bodies and pushed their hair and clothes backwards. They had to actively stop themselves from being physically pushed back as well.
The main body of that force was far away. It was at a distance that could even be called the horizon by soone with impaired vision.
A great beam of light resembling the HAMR. No matter how much smaller it was, that was what Gio saw.
HOOOOOOONG!
The sound that spread through the sky was unmistakably chanical. It was a terrifying bellow created by a manmade monster.
It did more than just announce the presence of a new foe. It intimidated every single person it touched and engraved in their bones the sound of its call.
All eyes, whether enemy or ally, went to the sky at the sa ti.
Half of the people on the battlefield had malicious grins on their faces while the other looked incredibly grave.
The side Gio’s party was on was the latter.
’That’s not good.’
It was still far away, which made its call even scarier. Gio could barely make out its shape in the distant horizon.
Like a massive mythical beast from legends made of tal and machinery, it perused the skies without a care for any of its other occupants.
’Charybdis.’
The warship was nad after a divine beast of the world’s mythologies, but its primary nasake was a monster nad after the sa creature.
That being was a terror of the past, a stain in history from over three hundred years ago.
In fact, it was a monster that appeared less than a century after the ti mirrored by the scenario.
The charybdis took its nasake because it was a war machine directly designed to mimic the monster’s capabilities.
’They’re only supposed to exist in the Gehenna Army. There shouldn’t be one here at all...’
VOOM!
Another huge sound ca from the distance. It was the roar of an equally massive beam of light that tore through the world below the warship and filled the air with smoke.
’It’s an intimidation tactic.’
It was a very obvious show of power that was even a bit corny to soone who wasn’t afraid of it. However, such a person didn’t exist in Gio’s vicinity.
Those people knew that such a beam spelled their deaths if it got close.
"Scatter!"
BOOM!
Gio still hadn’t seen its owner, but the sa man’s voice rang out right before a flashbang blinded everyone around him.
They lost the mont the ship appeared. Those reinforcents made it impossible for them to even consider victory.
But that wasn’t an issue.
They already got what they ca for.
Whoosh!
Several bodies rushed out of the flashbang in Gio’s party’s direction and whizzed past them. They were followed by the enemies they left behind, but not for very long.
VOOM!
A torrent of energy flew across the ground and turned it into a minefield. Purple gas clouded the air, filling the minds of its victims with hallucinations and confusion.
The battle that took place was mostly even. Gio didn’t see any signs of one side gaining an absolute advantage over the other.
Yet, when it ca ti for escape, the scales flipped entirely.
This was an art that had been mastered by the escapees.
Whoosh!
While they were distracted by the changes, a woman landed in front of the group of four. They put their guards up and threw their energy forward, but it was deflected by an invisible shield before reaching her.
"Stop!" She yelled before they could attack again.
"I don’t know who you are, but you’re with us now."
"With you? We don’t even know–"
"That doesn’t matter anymore."
The woman cut Gio off and pointed at the ship in the distance.
"You don’t know anything about us, so you’re useless to them. You’ll die before you can even blink the mont they catch up."
She wasn’t wrong.
’We already knew this side wouldn’t be calm, but this is different. It’s a civil war...’
...and they’d accidentally chosen a side.
’Shit.’
Without knowledge of the landscape, Gio didn’t have any confidence in escaping when their pursuers were so close and overgeared.
They had to escape with this group.
They could learn who they were with later.
BOOOOOOM!
The eruptions in the distance ca closer as if urging them to run.
"Fine. Lead the way."
The short conversation ended with Gio’s party following the woman with all their power, barely keeping up with her despite them being suppressed to the sa strength.
They moved through the brush of the surrounding forest until they sohow ended up back in the city. Their path took them into a sewer system that hadn’t contained water in centuries and through a complicated maze of tunnels until they reached a service exit.
All around them as they ran, they saw people moving in the sa direction in groups of two or three. They looked different, so not even resembling humans. It truly looked like a band of mutants who were running from a society that didn’t accept them.
’In a sense, that’s what djinns are.’
They were people who didn’t conform to society’s rules. The majority of them were unforgivable scum, but there was also a large number of djinns who had other reasons and didn’t partake in the sa violent cris or entertain the sa twisted vices as their peers.
Regardless, they had a society of their own. The party’s journey ended in a huge space under what Gio assud to still be Lyverne.
He saw the society that ford there. The bunker they’d created was shoddy and looked like the slums in a steampunk fantasy, but it was cozy enough for them.
There were at least eight floors filled with people. The entire center of the space was emptied out, connecting all eight layers in a way that was otherwise impossible.
Gio was feeling sothing similar to when he entered the Lunos headquarters for the first ti. There was an air of inexplicable familiarity throughout the space that made it feel like ho even to those who’d never been inside.
"Everyone!"
They arrived monts after a voice bood through the space, calling the attention of all those present within. It was a reminder that they were guests in a place where they didn’t belong.
"This war has been long, and we’ve lost too many friends for our cause, but this is the end. We’re reaching the end of the plan that turned all of you into believers."
His words echoed into places where he couldn’t be seen and reached Gio’s party before they reached the main area.
"They believe that they can suppress us with their weapons. They think we’ll back down just because they have power!"
His voice carried endless emotions that couldn’t have been ford over re weeks.
"We never had a chance before. We were stuck being oppressed because of the difference between our status and theirs. All of that changed with this! When this phenonon started, we were suppressed, but so were they! We’re equals, and as equals, we can finally take a stand!"
A crowd’s roar filled every pause in his words. When Gio and the others finally reached a place where they could see him...
"They believe they are above us, but we will not be stopped."
The man who was standing in the center of the space and being watched by everyone on all eight floors dragged a body in front of himself and displayed it to the crowd.
"This ti, we didn’t run without achieving anything. Feast your eyes, people, on the man who took so much for us. This is the Old Duke’s right hand..."
The man’s body hung limply even as a knife was pressed to his throat.
"...and now he’s just a toy for us to play with."
Gio looked at the woman who guided them. She looked back when she sensed his gaze.
"It’s a good ti, I guess. I don’t have to explain much to you."
She pointed at the ongoing display.
"That’s just one step of the plan. Unfortunately for you, now that you’re associated with us, you have no choice but to stay that way unless you want to die."
The man’s words made it obvious enough, but she reiterated their goals to the newcors who’d been roped into their business.
"We’re going to take down the Old Duke."
The civil war in the djinn factions was worse than Gio could have ever expected.
’But for us...’
For them, there wasn’t a better scenario in existence.
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